


Daniel Collins:  New Year’s Eve 1799

by Caitlyn_Collins



Category: Dark Shadows (1966)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-17
Updated: 2014-02-17
Packaged: 2018-01-12 18:31:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1195200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caitlyn_Collins/pseuds/Caitlyn_Collins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daniel Collins, now 16 years old and haunted by the ghosts that surround him, contemplates his past and future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Daniel Collins:  New Year’s Eve 1799

Tomorrow 

in a house populated by 

memories 

whispers, things in mirrors and 

images in corridors that 

vanish 

when looked straight upon, 

A new century begins. 

 

The New York house has been sold. 

Uncle Joshua has added this money 

to my trust. 

I would rather he had left the house 

for my use. 

 

When I am grown, I shall 

buy it, or another, 

and leave this place 

forever. 

 

(Why did we come 

and 

Why did we stay?) 

 

There is no leaving this place for you, 

sister Millicent. 

 

The flowers I left at your grave 

the time before last 

were dried and scattered by the wind 

the last time I visited 

that crowded graveyard. 

 

The snow has since come 

to bury you all. 

 

(i'm afraid i'm afraid i'm--) 

 

Alone. 

Better to be alone. 

 

They always go away. 

Break promises that they make 

and remake 

and forget - 

 

(She -- died. Vicki -- died?  Sarah -- Naomi 

\-- Josette – Jeremiah -- Barnabas--) 

 

They always go away. 

 

I hear the clock tick-ticking out 

these last minutes, 

destroying 

this last year. 

 

(I will forget. 

I will leave this place. 

I will. ) 

 

I promised all that before. 

I was a child then. 

I am sixteen now. 

A man. 

But he does not recognize this. 

 

He leaves full brandy bottles around. 

Testing himself, I know. Testing his manhood. 

 

(I wouId like to laugh. But 

lt sticks in my throat, and anyway, 

it is not funny . 

Nothing is.) 

 

There's a cold wind blowing outside. 

 

(They say that in some places the sun shines 

all year round, and it is so hot 

they speak longingly of 

cool sea breezes, ice water and snow. 

That place the duPres's came from... 

 

\--did they bring the trouble with them? 

or Millicent and I with us?  It 

was not Victoria.  I know. 

 

Dead. Dying. Dead. 

 

(I must leave this place. 

I will --) 

 

Three strokes away from midnight. 

Brandy glints amber in cut-glass bottles.  See 

Joshua's eyes taking them in as he enters. 

A temptation he has again not succumbed to. 

 

I hope he isn't going to try to be 

fatherly and understanding 

because 

he doesn't know how and it's 

better 

when he just ignores me, or tells me 

about ships & slaves, cotton & rum &

profit & loss, wages & forfeits &

 

keeps it all distant, 

like a game, 

a consuming, passionate game, 

so we can forget there was ever 

 

anything else 

forget to pretend there can ever be 

anything else 

 

(Let me leave please let me leave -- let 

it be like it was before 

I ever saw this place.) 

 

The clock chimes. 

Do not the sounds of 

church bells tolling 

for the dead echo 

like this? 

 

Midnight. 

And past. 

 

I am still here. In this house. 

and when I am grown and can 

do as I please will I

even want what I want this night? 

 

to leave? 

 

Or 

will the whispering, the 

voices in the halls and the 

faces in mirrors that reflect 

back images of 

those I knew and many 

I did not 

persuade me 

 

(as they try each night) 

that I will never leave; 

that I will someday

die 

and join them?)

 

The brandy bottle goes untouched. Again. 

He stands alone by the window 

watching the glitter of the snow. 

 

And I stand alone by the fire 

watching the snow as it glitters 

silent and cold and unforgiving in his 

ice eyes. 

 


End file.
